Push
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: M-21 pushes his transformation too far in the middle of a fight.


**Summary**: M-21 pushes his transformation too far in the middle of a fight.

Divergent after season 4.

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**Push  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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Dammit! Tao breathed heavily, checking three different camera feeds in as many seconds. The fight was nearly over – there was only one Union agent left, but something was wrong with M-21. His attacks were too wide, leaving himself open, and one of the earlier attacks must have taken out his earpiece because he wasn't listening to Tao either. He'd transformed a while ago, and if Tao was right, he could only maintain it for another minute or so.

Miss Seira dealt the final blow with Death Scythe, the agent crumpling at her feet and Tao leaned back, grinning - no, there was still something wrong.

His stomach clenching, Tao leaned towards his screen, as if the image in front of him would change if he did that. "Number 5?" She had a much better view than he did.

She stepped towards M-21, Death Scythe disappearing in a billow of smoke. He turned his head towards her, still transformed, standing battle-ready. He bared his teeth at her, but he didn't move to attack her either. That…was both good and bad. Dammit, what happened to him? Except it was obvious, but this had never happened before, and M-21 or the Boss would have told them if there really was a chance of him werewolfing out.

"_M-21_?" she said, stopping a few feet away from him.

Tao couldn't mistake that faint _growl_ he heard on her end and Tao's stomach sank. If M-21 attacked, he would have to order Takeo to knock him out. This wasn't the M-21 they knew and trusted, and if he wasn't thinking enough to attack a comrade, Miss Seira would be able to knock him out, but it would be better if Takeo knew to be ready as well, just in case.

Miss Seira and M-21 stood there, poised, but a wind blew from behind Miss Seira and M-21 raised his head. Tao watched carefully, ready to switch channels.

M-21 relaxed though, his arms dropping to his sides, his transformation receding and - oh. _Oh_. If that was what Tao thought it was, and if M-21 returned to his senses, Tao was going to tease him _mercilessly_ on the fact that he did have an enhanced sense of smell.

"He recognised you?" he asked Miss Seira, to be absolutely sure.

"_I think he has_," she replied, and M-21 padded over to her, a small grin on his face.

...He should take pictures. But he'd do that later, once they were all home, and when they'd gotten him back.

"Think he'll follow you?" Tao asked.

Miss Seira turned around and started walking towards home. M-21 continued following her and Tao blew out a sigh of relief. Okay, good. That was one less thing to worry about.

Tao switched channels. "Number 2, Number 3, can you pick up the agents?" They couldn't leave modified human bodies to be found, obviously. The craters and collateral damage was bad enough for making people nervous, but adding something else that would rock their world view? Yeah, no. The less attention they drew, the better.

"_Yeah_."

"_Of course._"

That done, Tao called Boss.

It rang once before it was picked up. "_Tao?_"

"Hey, Boss," Tao started, beginning to pack up his gear. "The agents have been cleared, but something else happened." He paused, breathing out, tapping his fingers on his phone. "It's M-21 - not sure what happened yet, but he's acting on instinct. He still recognises us -or he at least knows we're friendly- but he's…not completely here."

While the Boss was quiet, he used that time to continue putting everything away.

"_I see. I will make arrangements - if you're able to, take him downstairs when you arrive home._"

He stopped packing for a second. Damn, yeah, that was true - who knew how wolfed-out M-21 would react to being in a lab. "You got it, Boss." Tao hung up and once he'd finished erasing his area of his presence, went after the others.

xOx

He caught up with Miss Seira easily enough, and Takeo and Regis was already there, carrying the agents on their shoulders. M-21 was only a little bit behind them, following them easily and without hesitation, his wounds from the fight were completely healed.

"Yooo! M-21!" Tao called out to him, waving. M-21 tilted a lopsided grin at him aaand that was strange, seeing such an unguarded on his face close up.

"He's still not back yet?" Tao asked the others, just before they bounded to another rooftop.

"No." Takeo said, his lips pursed.

But at least he was responding to them. That was another good thing so far.

"What do you think caused it?" Regis asked, shooting M-21 a look over his shoulder.

"Dunno," Tao admitted. He glanced up at the shining moon hanging above them. It was still a crescent, unchanged from the last time he'd checked five minutes ago. "If this was a 'traditional' transformation, I would have said it had something to due to the full moon, but it's not." Not that he would have anyway; their 'vampires' weren't traditional, so why should someone with a werewolf heart be any different?

"The Boss'll know though," Tao continued confidently. And if he didn't, Boss would know what to do anyway.

It didn't take them long to get home. M-21 peered at them as they all changed shoes, his head cocked to the side. Takeo and Regis were the first ones in, carrying the bodies down to the lab.

…Ah, right. He wouldn't remember about indoor shoes while he was like that, would he?

"Hey, M-21." Tao waited until M-21 looked at him. "Can you take your shoes off?" He gestured to his own feet.

M-21 glanced down at the pink slippers Tao was wearing, his eyebrows drawing in. He made a grumbling sound and then knelt down, tugging at his laces. The shoes were off by the time Tao put a pair of slippers in front of him. Without prompting, M-21 stepped into them.

"Hokay," Tao said, slinging an arm around M-21's shoulders once they were out of the entranceway. M-21 didn't twitch, only peered at him, sniffing delicately. "We're going to see the Boss."

M-21 didn't react to that either, but he didn't react negatively in the very least.

Tao let go, grinning, and M-21 cocked his head. When Tao started walking to go further into the house, M-21 followed after him, not getting distracted with what was around them. Tao waved at Seira as they left, who nodded back.

Tao led him to the lab, keeping an eye on him all the time. When they were surrounded by white tiled walls, M-21 only looked at them but didn't pause at all. That was good. Though it wouldn't have mattered – if M-21 had refused to go, they would have brought Boss to him instead. If M-21 reacted to the _Boss_ as well, then Tao would have been doing the checks with Boss' guidance in his ear.

"Hey, Boss," Tao called out once they'd reached the main lab, "we're here."

Boss was there, standing by one his scanners. He nodded, gesturing them over. "Tao, M-21," he greeted, nodding to both of them.

Tao gave him a loose salute and M-21 growled something back in return, not looking threatening or angry.

Boss glanced at Tao, frowning slightly. "He's been like this the entire time?"

Tao nodded. "Yeah," he said, his voice soft. He'd spent the entire time making sure M-21 was following them that he hadn't allowed himself the thought of what would happen if this was permanent. But it had been over half-an-hour since M-21 had ended his transformation, and that outcome was looking more and more likely.

"M-21?" Boss said, and M-21 lifted his head slightly, making a grumbling noise, a lilt at the end of it, like a question. Boss smiled. "Come this way." Boss gestured at the scanner.

M-21 glanced at it, then went over to Boss's side.

Boss patted the scanner, jerking his head slightly and after a slight hesitation, M-21 lifted himself onto it.

"If you could lie down - ah, thank you." Boss turned to one of his machines and pressed a button. M-21 tensed when the scanner hummed and started to pull him into itself, but other than that, he didn't move.

Tao wandered over to Boss's side, seeing the developing image on the screen. He'd seen a couple of scans of M-21 before, but they were usually of his body, not his brain, so he couldn't tell if there was anything hugely different from what was normal.

Boss hummed, nodding as he tapped his finger on the screen, making a few smaller windows pop up, more details contained within them. "Everything is within normal levels." Tao let out a relieved breath, smiling softly. Good. "Some areas are elevated, but not dangerously so, and it's to be expected with the fight you've just had."

With another press of a button, the scanner wound down, sliding M-21 out again. "This state of mind should wear off in time, though I would like a blood sample to compare in any case." Boss walked off and returned with a syringe. M-21 eyed it.

"I'll just need your arm for a few seconds," Boss said, holding his palm out expectantly.

M-21 studied his palm before placing his arm there.

"This is going to sting…" Boss warned him softly, just as he pressed the end to M-21's skin.

M-21 flinched and yanked his arm away, glowering at Boss, growling under his breath.

"And that will be all," Boss said, stepping back and smiling. "I'll check to see if there's been any changes," he said to Tao, "but other than that, we can only wait, so it may be an idea for him to try and sleep it off," Boss advised.

Tao nodded. "All right."

M-21 turned his head towards them, watching them as they talked. Tao smiled at him; M-21 returned it, lifting one corner of his mouth and tilting his head to the side.

"Hey, M-21," Tao said, walking over to M-21. M-21 blinked and then perked up. "We're going to your room."

M-21 made a garbled growling noise, getting off the scanner table. Tao wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to say, but it seemed positive.

While Tao led M-21 to his room, he pulled out his phone. Boss says M-21's fine~ He just says he needs to sleep it off, so I'm taking him to his room~ ^0^ He'll hopefully be back in the morning~

Before the others could respond, he slipped the phone back into his pocket. He felt it buzz a couple of times before it stopped.

"All right," Tao said, once they were in M-21's room. "We're here!"

M-21 glanced around, and then back at Tao. Hm. "You aren't sleepy?" If he wasn't, they could watch a movie or something instead.

He didn't get an answer straight away, but M-21 eventually nodded.

"Your bed's over there," Tao said, waving to it, "unless you want to sleep with me tonight," he added, his lips quirking up in a grin. Like M-21 would take that seriously.

M-21 seemed to ponder that, and then nodded again.

Tao's eyebrows shot up. "Huh? Wait - I was..." He peered M-21 - he didn't seem to be joking, and Tao very much doubted M-21 would say something like that even when he was thinking properly (or maybe that was the point?). M-21's patient expression stayed the same, studying him curiously at the same time.

"Uh, well, okay," Tao said, scratching his cheek with a finger. "So, your bed or mine?" Okay, he hadn't meant that to be an innuendo, but the words slipped out like that.

When M-21 started to head towards his own bed, Tao took that as his answer. But... Tao stared down at his suit. Thaaat was going to end up crumpled, and if he went to his own room to change, M-21 would probably follow him. It wouldn't make much of a difference except take longer, and M-21 wanted to sleep in his own bed, so Tao quickly stripped out of his clothes, leaving only his underwear on. It wasn't as if he would catch a cold by not wearing night clothes for one night (and he'd spent more time in way worse conditions before and hadn't been affected by it).

M-21 had already curled up under the blanket, shifting every couple of seconds, maybe trying to find the perfect spot. Well, unless Tao decided to try and yank his trousers off while M-21 was like that... Nah.

Tao went over, going to lay on the side closest to M-21's wall. "It'd probably be better if I slept on this side," he commented. It meant M-21 wouldn't feel as trapped when he woke up, having an escape if he felt like he needed one.

M-21 let him, sighing and closing his eyes, curling further up on himself.

Tao watched him, listening as M-21's breathing evened out and deepened. Hopefully when M-21 woke up, he would be his regular self.

xOx

Tao woke up to a sharp intake of breath and he snapped his eyes open, seeing M-21's face right in front of him. His wide grey eyes were no longer slitted.

"Tao...?" And good, _speech_. Confused, quiet speech, but it was definitely a step up from the night before.

He beamed at M-21, loosing a relieved chuckle. "Good to have you back."

M-21's expression blanked, his nostrils flaring and Tao raced to assure him. "It's fine, it's fine. Don't worry about it - we think you tripped your werewolf instincts or something in that last fight. You've only been out of it for a couple of hours."

"'A couple'?" M-21 pursed his lips, his eyes narrowing as he glanced away from Tao, sitting up. "And what'll happen the next time we need to fight?" he asked, his voice tight. "The same thing? You would be distracted with me while still needing to concentrate on the Union."

"The Boss is looking into it right now," Tao told him, also sitting up. "It could have been a one-off."

"Hn." M-21 turned back to him and looked him up and down, frowning. "Why are you in my bed, anyway?"

Tao quirked a grin at him. "You apparently didn't want to sleep alone last night. That's all." He stretched a little, pulling his arm across his body. "I didn't want to crumple my clothes while we slept and, well, it was the end of the fight," he said as he gestured towards M-21's torso. M-21 was still in the lead with a seventy-eight per-cent chance of him not having a shirt by the end of a fight.

M-21 frowned and then got out of bed. Tao followed him.

"Boss'll probably be in the lab," Tao said while he got his clothes back on. If he had even gotten some sleep. If he hadn't, they would really need to get some way to make sure Boss slept at night. Maybe they should enlist the help from _him_? Boss would never deny _him_ anything if he requested it.

"Yeah." M-21 made his bed and put on new clothes.

Once they were done, they went downstairs together. Tao could smell breakfast cooking (ramen was a given; was that galbi?) but they bypassed the living room, heading towards the lab.

Boss _was_ still there, in practically the same place where they'd left him. When the door hissed shut behind them, he turned towards them, smiling. "Well rested, I hope?"

"Yup!" Tao said, eyeing the screen Boss had been looking at as they went over. "Did you sleep last night, Boss?"

"I dozed for an hour or so," Boss said, brushing some of his hair away from his shoulders. "It's more than enough." For someone like the Boss, yeah, but still.

Tao hid a small sigh. Maybe he should go ask _him_ to bug Boss about sleep while they were walking to school.

Boss glanced at M-21. "I've double-checked and compared through your stats: they haven't changed too drastically since the last time I measured them. This may have been a one-off occurrence, but I think you'd understand if I kept an eye on you for the meantime."

M-21 nodded, the tension in his shoulders relaxing.

Grinning, Tao looped an arm around M-21's shoulders. "Okay, let's go eat!" He would tell M-21 about his enhanced sense of smell once they had some food in them.

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Frankenstein's using a syringe he designed himself, obviously, haha.


End file.
